Skylines of the World

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Makes me think what if Boston had done the same... or even NYC... Imagine having the old city in tact and a separate cbd. It would be interesting, but I do like American style cities where its a huge mix of old and new as well (besides shit transit and mass highways). I do think London honestly is doing a better job though of mixing both, keeping their history in tact while massively expanding into the 21st century vs American cities which were raped by urban renewal and general greed (penn station teardown).

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Makes me think what if Boston had done the same... or even NYC... Imagine having the old city in tact and a separate cbd. It would be interesting, but I do like American style cities where its a huge mix of old and new as well (besides shit transit and mass highways). I do think London honestly is doing a better job though of mixing both, keeping their history in tact while massively expanding into the 21st century vs American cities which were raped by urban renewal and general greed (penn station teardown).

Give Boston more credit than that. A lot of the financial district is built on the burn scar of the Boston Fire. The Back Bay business district is built on an old rail yard; so is the Seaport District. Kendall was a swamp and then an industrial wasteland.

We all know that other parts of the city did get the urban renewal treatment. But we're pretty close to having 'the old city intact with a separate, new CBD'. A lot of the destruction was for highways anyway.

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Guangzhou is one of my favorite skylines, and is absolutely one of the best in the world. Its tallest building is over 1700', and the observation tower tops 1900'. The scale is unbelievable! The city as a whole seems very overwhelming.

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Shenzhen as well, definitely a city Im trying to visit asap. Major plus that its a stones throw from Hong Kong. Its also close to Guangzhou and Macao as well. I havent been to China yet, but this part of the country must be one giant megapolis.

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The inexplicable chop-down of Ping An at the very last moment left a bad taste in my mouth. There was supposed to be a spire on top! It would have looked substantially better! I am honestly trying to figure out how they are proposing much taller buildings in the city, yet Ping An can't get its spire.

Still, Shenzhen is definitely making a push for Top 1-3 skyline in the world by 2025. It will take more than just volume to overtake NYC though. It lacks both NYC's history and density, so it really needs to be an overwhelming force whereas NYC is also surging with construction. If things continue on their current trajectory it probably has a more realistic shot at #1 by 2030. It's probably the most "Coruscant" like skyline in the world at this point, even more than Dubai.

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Agreed. Also China has figured out how to make world class supertalls. Unlike Dubai they practiced for decades on low rises how to hone their style and what it will be, and theyve figured it out. Now that theyre going very tall that has had 2 major benefits.
1. Huge volume of background buildings that fill in the cityscapes as far as the eye can see. With no turds being too tall... besides cctv hq Beijing imo.
2. Lots and lots of practice. This allowed them to get their own style down pat, of what great Chinese supertalls will look like, so when it was time they brought it.. As they got better the buildings got taller, and now they have incredible supertalls.

... This is unlike Dubai who went tall af, asap, so now SZR is a world class collection of turds. Theyve figured out their own style now too, which you can see popping up along the boulevard which look absolutely great, but unfortunately SZR will always be there as a monument to building too fast without a vision.

Its always best to experiment short, and as you get better and better and find your legs go taller and taller and any turds that you built early on will fade into the background and even possibly short enough to demo.

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Is it just me or is Moscow building the best buildings in the world right now? Im not talking about their skyscrapers though, but mid and low rises. On skyscrapercity under city/metro compilations Moscow is FAR ahead. Their architecture is lots of stone, brick, and its some of the only stuff thats noticeably new, but has the quality of older buildings. Theyve figured out how to create new buildings that in the future will be historic and will never be knocked down.

Im not sure if theyre just paying more money for materials than other cities and also maybe trying to make up for decades of boring commie blocks. I was surprised a while back how for as old as Moscow is, the city was kind of spaced out and not as wonderful a mix of old and new like a London. They are FAST making up for lost time. EVERYBODY should be taking notes of how to build new build buildings that will be future historic structures. Im blow away every time I look.

I would LOVE to see Boston filling out the neighborhoods with buildings like these 3-6 stories, quality materials, and high density... and replace as many triple deckers as possible... preferably... all of them. Seriously though if were not going to build tall we should be building as dense as possible further and further and further from the core and with buildings that are not a flip but something to take pride in that we will want to keep forever once built. Those days are not in the past if you dont want them to be as Moscow is showing.